Unique Ways of Telling : The Work of Street Photographer Artem Zhitenev

Unique Ways of Telling : The Work of Street Photographer Artem Zhitenev.

You have to be imaginative.

The visual world, after all, is significant. It is a geographical, historical, economic, social, and political – the five forces as I call them – representation of ‘what is’. We see complex images in street photography and then attempt to reorganise, in a sort of Gestalt theory kind of way, to make sense of this ‘what is’.

It starts with life, with movement, that the artist is going to freeze into their single fame composition, with a certain quirky vibrancy and colour and non-colour as the subject dictates or as the photographer chooses. People acting in defined settings which may, or may not, be alien to them.

Copyrightⓒ Artem Zhitenev

‘How in God’s name have I ended up here?’ The man lighting the cigarette could be thinking as he stares down the lens of the Artem Zhitenev’s camera. Here are those geographical, historical, economic, social and political forces at play in this man’s very own what is, and, of course, what he is.

He looks curious, a bit nonplussed if we are honest. But it is the moment the photograph is shot that is the clever thing. The flame of the match still alight, a metaphor for the man’s being, his own private ‘flame’ of existence in that moment.

Maybe it is a sense of duty, he might not even really, really want to be there, he makes do meantime, sucks it up until he can return home to his wife? His kids? His favourite football team, a litre of beer in his local bar?

The photograph leaps at you, it grabs you by your lapels, or it pulls at your tie, it says and shouts and stamps its feet : ‘Hey! Look at me’.

Who, I find myself asking, is this man? Why is he there? How does he feel about being there? What is the uniform he wears, is it important to him?

“This is a portrait of a Cossack,” street photographer Artem Zhitenev informs, “Of the Karachay-Cherkess Republic, which is in the Caucasus region (in the south of the Russian Federation), where we still have Cossack settlements. I was commissioned by a newspaper to cover the life of these people.”

It is a fascinating study. We stare at the image, notice a bit more detail, the cross behind the man’s right hand shoulder, the little cloud of smoke, the lit match, his moustache, uniform…

“What attracted,” Zhitenev continues. “Was his expressive face, and the combination of an Orthodox cross (the one we see over his right shoulder as we look at the photo) together with the stars on the man’s shoulder boards.”

It speaks of those ‘five forces’ representation of his ‘what is’, of who he is, of his common sense understanding of the world he belongs to, of his very being, all within that single frame. The Orthodox Christian, the soldier, the Russian, and tradition and all the things that make this moustachioed man who he really is (whether that is who he really wants to be or not) as he stares out at Artem.

Artem Zhitenev was born in Moscow, and at the age of nine his father, himself a keen photographer, bought his son a Smena 8M camera. At the time probably the most popular camera in, the then, USSR. Eventually Artem would work as a photojournalist for newspapers and magazines and begin to gather prizes and accolades for his work.

“First of all,” he starts up. “Photography intrigues me with the mystery of everything that is happening.”

Copyrightⓒ Artem Zhitenev

It shows in his work. A man is tightly wedged beneath the front wheel of his maroon van. It looks as if he has used the kerb as a jack and can just about squeeze under the front wheel, presumably, to do repairs. He is peering out at the photographer who is intent on capturing this moment. And, we know, it is the five forces – geographical, historical, economic, social and political – that have brought this man, in his beige Adidas track suit bottoms and grey top, to this moment, this very point in his existence beneath his broken down van.

“I guess, street photography is all about the decisive moment,” Artem observes. “As, it is an exact moment which fills a photograph with life and energy. I think that photography depicts life as it is – candid, ingenious. You can capture anything that life brings you, just pull the camera’s trigger on time. For me this is why you need photography [for] life experience.”

A street photograph should, of course, always raise questions about who is portrayed, what is happening and why? But a photograph is also always a fusion between the taker and the image, they are inextricably linked.

The ‘what is’ of existence of ordinary folk, because we all arrive here, at this point, or indeed, any point in our lives through a filter of these five aspects of our lives. Photography, and especially street photography, is the visual crystallisation of that unseen but very powerful amalgamation.

Copyrightⓒ Artem Zhitenev

“I took this photograph during the summer of 1998,” Artem explained. “I was a reporter at the G8 summit in Birmingham, UK. On the left one can see my fellow journalists, and on the right the car of Russian President Boris Yeltsin. I remember taking this picture and thinking about the amusing non- Russian environment with a limousine and a Russian flag on it.”

For me, Zhitenev has an awareness only shared with other great photographers, an eye, if you like for that life and vibrancy that attracts street photographers.

“I think I perceive myself as a hunter,” he tells me thoughtfully. “Street photography is like hunting. A photographer is a hunter and his or her camera is a gun, the city is like woods full of hunter’s paths, people become animals or birds, and, in the end, you have a photograph as a hunter’s trophy.”

But within his works is that strong sense of being around those geographical, historical, economic, social and political forces. Of cultural traditions and a sense of past, and a perspective on the now.

“This photograph was taken at Mamayev Kurgan,” Artem revealed. “The place commemorates the Battle of Stalingrad in January 1943, the turning point of WWII. It is of great significance for every Russian. Here I pictured boys running down the hill, and in the background stands ‘The Motherland Calls!’ monument.”

Artem Zhitenev is an accomplished photographer, a powerful artist and street photographer. His legacy encapsulates not only the five forces discussed above, but his own, unique way of telling the stories of these forces in one frame.

Sergio Burns
Sergio Burns Editor at Large, is an Author & a Senior writer for AM, a widely published Journalist in The Mail On Sunday, Contemporary, The Sunday Herald,
Blueprint, The New Entertainer (Spain), In These Times (USA), Austin Chronicles(USA), Whitewall (USA) & Sprudge (USA) to name a few.